One of the questions by Stephen Wellmann was “What new business apps will we see in 2008 that utilize location?”

Sal’s answer: “So far LBS business apps have been horizontal, meaning one size fits all. In 2008 we’ll see the beginnings of tailored LBS apps for verticals and also highly customized apps for enterprise accounts.”

Ourstories.org by Unicef, one laptop per child (OLPC) and Google is an oral history project, in which location is not only a set of longitude and latitude, but a social place in our world. The project is…

“a joint initiative to preserve and share the histories and identities of cultures around the world by making personal stories available online in many languages. Using laptops, mobile phones and other recording devices, children will record, in their native languages, the stories of elders, family members and friends. These stories will be shared globally through the Our Stories website, where they can be found on a Google Map.

By making these stories accessible around the world, the Our Stories project hopes to contribute to a better understanding of our shared humanity across countries and cultures, across religious traditions, across languages, and across generations.”

“In the work the listener is asked to locate various substances that form the contemporary urban environment (glass, stone, concrete etc.). As they mark the location of each one they begin to hear interwoven stories connecting them to remote locations around the world, soundtracked with a generative music score. The narratives are progressed and concluded as the listener returns to the locations they chose. The piece is reflective and sometimes melancholy, it touches on issues of climate change and global awareness, but ultimately encourages the listener to treasure the moments around them…”

GPS Business News published an interview with Interview with Pierre-Antoine Durgeat, co-founder, DisMoiOu (TellMeWhere) a French LBS community web site. The web site is free, the business model is to generate revenues from advertisement. GBN asked the following question on the product concept of the “user generated point of interest community”:What is the driver behind DisMoiOu.fr/TellMeWhere.com?

“Durgeat: Users are in demand of qualified and up to date local information. Internet allows for a great wealth of information to be searched and looked at. Unfortunately this information is now very close to paper information. It is static and lacks interactivity. Web 2.0 applications linked to LBS solutions allow for such information to be up to date and shared at a minimal cost. For example, databases are up to date on hotels and parking lots, not on Roman churches or skate board parks. We have therefore created the technology for points of interest to be known and promoted to end users in need of such vertical information. We expect to allow for example a handicapped person to know where handicapped parking spaces are available in Paris. The community caters for the good of each user. The founders’ vision is ultimately to create an exhaustive up to date, user generated points of interest database.”

As “OTA” expects 2008 to become “the year of mobile location” one of the questions was “What kinds of new, unique applications is GPS enabling on mobile devices that we didn’t see on the desktop?”

Darren’s answer:

“There are lots of other applications out there where knowing your location provides the context for new types of information. Three of the coolest new applications I can think of come from the finalists of the “maps in Apps” contest Tele Atlas held recently as part of its “LBS Innovators Series.” The first is Slifter, which allows shoppers to search local store inventory for products from their handsets. Users can search for more than 85 million products available from 30,000 retail locations, view product information, images and store locations and maps. They can also share their finds with friends or save them to a mobile shopping list.

Hollywood USA is a tour guide features movie locations across the country with added GPS deployment on the uLocate — WHERE platform. Each site includes location photo and address, scene and plot description, stars, director and DVD cover image.

KnowledgeWhere PhoneTag Elite incorporates location-based mapping and messaging technology to create a hi-tech game of hide and seek. Players can play with anyone across the United States by participating in existing games, creating private games with friends, or participating in cash tournaments. Objective of game play is to capture your target while evading capture.

At a conceptual level, we think the future of LBS is all about extending the definition of an “address” beyond a house or an apartment — “where I live” — to include any temporary physical location — “where I am right now.”

In addition to the applications I just described, others will capitalize on this by enabling the on-demand delivery of goods and services — a pizza to a couple sitting on a blanket in a park, or a replacement windshield to a car in a specific parking space in a giant mall parking lot, for example.”